


Day 169

by Josh_the_Bard



Series: A Year in Kirkwall [169]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:13:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24790642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh_the_Bard/pseuds/Josh_the_Bard
Series: A Year in Kirkwall [169]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589257
Kudos: 1





	Day 169

Huon walked the halls of an endless library. There was something he was looking for, but he had long since forgotten what. He was dreaming, no doubt about that, but he didn’t care. He was so tired of staring at the same four walls of his cell, and of the malicious silence of the templars. 

“Hello,” he called out, for the he-had-had-forgotten-how-many-ith, time.

“Huon?”

Huon stopped dead in his tracks. The voice had seemed to come from everywhere at once. He looked down every line of bookshelves but saw no one.

“Where are you?” he called out.

“Right here.”

This time the voice came from behind him. He turned to see Nyssa, his wife from his life before being imprisoned in the circle. Only it wasn’t her, it was a demon wearing her face. ‘Nyssa’ looked at him with four of her six eyes, the other two were rolled back, as if trying to look out the back of her skull.

“Who are you,” Huon demanded.

“I am Potential,” said the demon. “I am the embodiment of the wisdom of the old elvhen.”

“You will not take me, demon,” Huon said. He drew a staff from out of thin air and felt a surge of power as he prepared for battle. ‘Nyssa’ made no move to retaliate.

“The demons here are aware of you,” she said. “But you have already proven your strength. I was not drawn to you by your despair or rage, but by your thirst for wisdom. I am no demon, but a spirit. I remember a time from before humans poisoned this land. I remember what the humans forced your people to forget.”

Huon released his staff and it dissolved into the ether. All he wanted was to return to his studies, he had assumed the books of the library would contain nonsense, or else be tricks laid by demons. But it was true that spirits, as well as demons, dwelled in the Fade. No mage could spend time here without meeting the more benevolent entities. Had his desire for wisdom really attracted a helpful spirit?

“What is it that you remember?” he asked. Nyssa, or Potential, smiled. It was not the sinister, hungry smile of a demon but the kind, gentle expression of a kindly scholar.

“You have guessed part of it already,” she said. “The secret lies in the blood. The humans know that they cannot allow the elves a fair society, based on one’s merit. The blood of the elves calls to the Fade, it belongs here in a world where anything is possible.”

A few books flew off the shelves and opened themselves up, floating in front of Huon at the perfect distance for reading.

“This is blood magic!” Huon cried out in disgust, slapping the books away.

“So are phylacteries yet the Chantry seems to have no issue using them, does it?” asked Potential. “They fear your power, the blood of the elves is strong. You need not summon demons, or sacrifice the unwilling, but what has following their rules gotten you?”

Huon suddenly found himself back in his cell. He did not know if he was still in the Fade or had woken up. He took a moment to look around. He had lost track of the days he had been locked in here, with no light and no one to talk to. Why would they do this unless they were afraid of him. They must be so very terrified of his power. He had tried to be what they wanted him to be, why shouldn’t he try becoming what they feared.

Huon rolled over and went back to sleep, moments later reappearing in the library with Potential, still wearing the face of a six-eyed Nyssa.

“Teach me,” he begged.


End file.
